Evangelicals Mobilize to Fight AIDS

Working to help sick people is biblical? Sounds like a radical idea, but it just might catch on if this group of evangelicals has its way.

From Reuters.com:

Kay Warren says five years ago she was a "white suburban mom with a
minivan" helping her husband run one of the most influential evangelical
churches in the United States and barely aware of the global AIDS crisis.

Today, Warren will host the third conference on her church's role in
fighting the HIV/AIDS pandemic after a spiritual awakening that rocked her own
faith and challenged how the evangelical community responds to what many still
regard as a "gay cancer."

More than 50 international speakers -- including the first ladies of Rwanda
and Zambia and Democratic presidential contender Hillary Clinton -- will gather
at Saddleback Valley Community Church in Southern California on Wednesday for
three days to mobilize local churches around the world to help prevent HIV/AIDS
and care for its victims."

This is the passion, the call of my life," said Warren, a quintessential
California blue-eyed blonde. She admits that U.S. evangelicals have been "late
to the party" on the AIDS issue and castigates the "sinful absence and puny
efforts" of her community's past track record."

I see more and more individual churches, pastors and believers who are
recognizing that this is what the Bible teaches and that there is nothing
strange about it," Warren told Reuters of her campaign.